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Tag Archives: Mystery

As a grave witch, Alex Craft can speak to the dead-she’s even on good terms with Death himself. As a consultant for the police, she’s seen a lot of dark magic, but nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she’s raising a “shade” involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life. Someone really doesn’t want her to know what the dead have to say, and she’ll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why…

Review
Set in a near-future where magic has reappeared and the Fey have come out of the proverbial closet, Alex Craft is a grave witch who able to raise the shades of the dead, making them visible to others. She is about to embark on the most difficult task of her career; be the first grave witch to raise a shade to testify in court. It will be a landmark change for her industry and has made her a target.

Or is she a target because of the favour she does for her estranged sister, looking into the death of a politician?

There are a number of engaging characters in this world, including a prophetic gargoyle, handsome and mysterious detective, even Death himself.

This is more of a murder mystery than many other offerings in the urban fantasy field, and it holds up well. Yes, it is somewhat formulaic and some sections could use a touch more editing, but overall it is engaging, funny, well-written, and action-packed. The romance is dealt with deftly, the myriad of threads all weave together well and the world is distinct and fully-formed.

44) On the Prowl, Patricia Briggs, Eileen Wilks, Karen Chance, Sunny. If you like urban fantasy/paranormal romance… get this book of novellas. Okay, so I am not sold on Sunny’s Mona Lisa series even after reading a couple of her novellas, but the other 3 tales… awesome! Big fan of Patricia Briggs’ series and really like the byplay between Charles and Anna in Alpha and Omega.

45) Birthright, Nora Roberts. Interesting premise; a child is kidnapped as a baby, never told she was adopted and suddenly stumbles on her birth family. Set this on top of the archeological find of the century. An enjoyable read, though I admit I picked this one up because of the whole archeological find aspect. And that wasn’t really explored – a ‘B’ story than gets relegated to ‘C’ level.

35) Bloodfever, Karen Marie Moning. Not all Sidhe are good Sidhe. Heck, not even the good ones are all that great, as MacKayla Lane has found out. This is the 2nd in a series that is really shaping up well. Lots of twists and turns, with interesting characters.

36) Every Secret Thing, Laura Lippman. After reading The Last Place, I was keen for another Lippman book, but this one just didn’t resonate with me. Not sure why. It was good, with lots of twists, but something just… I dunno.

37) By a Spider’s Thread, Laura Lippman. I enjoyed this one much better than the last. Maybe it was because I already knew the characters, though one of the people in Every Secret Thing did make an appearance here. Like the last one, there were plenty of twists.

38 ) Hound the Falcon, Judith Tarr. When mysteries are leaving you feeling a little flat, do a switch! Pick up a fantasy novel – in this case a trilogy (all in one book so I’ll count them as 1) set in the Crusade period. With elves. Nice elves. And evil churchfolk (and some nice ones too). And kings and princes and saints. A nice break from reality…

11) Hex Marks the Spot, Madelyn Alt. OMG! Not a Get Fuzzy book! What is the world coming to? Well, actually I read all of these because I was getting bored with the book I was really reading… and am still only halfway through. Sigh.

Already started on my 8th of the year and I still haven’t touched the stack of new books I bought while in the States pre-Christmas (read a bunch of them while I was there, but still have lots to go through).

5) The Sunrise Lands, S.M. Stirling. Well, duh! Kind of hinted that in my last post on this subject. Enjoyed it… but really wanted it not to be the start of another trilogy. Love trilogies and all… but only once I have all the books in hand and can read them all right away. Patience? Moi? NON! So now I am waiting for the next one…

6) Falling Woman, Pat Murphy. Must have picked this one up at a garage sale or something because it was written back in 1983; you can really tell that in some of the phrasing, things talked about and the fact that everyone is smoking up a storm, LOL. I didn’t think it was quite the ‘psychological thriller’ that the cover promised it to be, but it was an interesting read.

7) The Dog is Not a Toy, Darby Conley. Hey, a cartoon book still qualifies as a book in my mind! I love Get Fuzzy… Bucky is so evil and Satchel is so trusting… yet so often disappointed (with comedic results).